Many businesses still deal with manual processes like filing invoices, routing approval forms, onboarding new hires, handling support requests, or managing print jobs through outdated systems. These workflows are often time-consuming, repetitive, and typically prone to delays or errors. Left unchecked, they slow down teams, lead to data loss, and limit a company’s ability to grow.
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is already making a real difference in how businesses handle everyday work. From speeding up decisions to organizing documents and eliminating routine tasks, AI brings intelligence to previously manual processes.
This blog explores how AI can enhance key business functions through automation, secure access, and smarter workflows.
Manual Business Processes: What’s Slowing You Down?
Manual workflows are the unseen bottlenecks in most businesses. They involve humans handling repetitive tasks, relying on spreadsheets or email, or navigating outdated paper-based systems.
Examples of manual processes:
- Approving purchase orders via email threads
- Entering data from one system into another by hand
- Printing forms, signing them, scanning them, and then emailing them back
- Manually updating the status of support tickets
- Installing and troubleshooting print drivers on local machines
Common pain points include:
- Slow turnaround due to handoffs and lack of visibility
- High potential for errors and inconsistencies
- Lost or misplaced documents
- Frustrated employees spending time on low-value tasks
When a process depends on people chasing emails, re-entering data, or fixing small mistakes, it starts to hold everything up. Work takes longer than it should, details get missed, and it becomes harder to keep things consistent or compliant.
The Role of AI in Streamlining Workflows
Artificial Intelligence is remarkably good at handling repetitive decisions, analyzing patterns, and enabling automation across multiple systems. When built into your workflows, AI can:
- Automate Routine Decisions: Using no-code automation tools, AI lets you define rules for how documents or tasks move through your business. For example, a new employee form can trigger routing to HR, IT, and payroll automatically without someone remembering to forward it.
- Eliminate Manual Data Entry: AI can read digital forms, scan documents, extract data, validate entries, and populate databases. No more re-keying values or checking spreadsheets line by line.
- Secure Print Management: Print jobs can be handled through direct-IP connections that don’t require traditional print servers. AI helps route jobs based on location, user role, or document type as well as authenticate users securely before releasing documents to printers.
- Deliver Real-Time Visibility: No one should have to ask, “Did that get approved?” or “Where’s that form now?” With the right tools in place, teams can quickly see the status of a request, who has it, and what needs to happen next. Updates happen automatically, so nothing gets lost in the shuffle.
This isn’t wishful thinking, it’s already happening in organizations using connected systems for document handling, printing, approvals, and access control. Everything works together, and people aren’t left guessing.
Real-World Use Cases
Here’s how AI in automation is already helping teams cut down on manual work and keep things moving more smoothly:
IT and Print Management
Many IT teams are moving away from traditional print servers and switching to cloud-based printing. With modern print tools:
- Users log in securely before picking up their print jobs
- Jobs are sent to the right printer automatically, based on location or department
- IT can track usage and spot issues before they turn into support tickets
This cuts down on printer-related helpdesk calls and makes printing easier to manage, especially across multiple offices.
Finance and Accounts Payable
Invoices don’t need to be handled by hand anymore. With document scanning and automation:
- Invoice details are read automatically
- The system checks for matching purchase orders
- The invoice gets routed for approval based on company rules
This gives finance teams more visibility into what’s been approved and helps them close out payments faster.
Human Resources
Hiring and onboarding usually involve a lot of back-and-forth between HR, IT, and other departments. With digital forms and automated routing:
- Applications get passed to the right people right away
- Offer letters and onboarding documents can be signed and filed without printing
- IT requests for laptops or system access can be triggered automatically
It’s a faster, cleaner process, and everyone stays in the loop.
Operations and Field Teams
When something breaks or a field request comes in, delays can cause real problems. With automated workflows:
- Requests submitted online go straight to the right person
- Tasks are prioritized and scheduled based on urgency
- If something’s running late, alerts can be sent to whoever needs to know
No more digging through emails to figure out who’s handling what.
Customer Support
For support teams, the first step is usually figuring out where a request should go. Instead of sorting by hand:
- Incoming questions can be routed based on keywords or topic
- Simple requests can get an instant reply
- More complex issues go to the right person without someone having to manually forward them
This helps tickets get resolved faster and gives support teams more time to focus on cases that need their attention.
How a Managed Services Provider Can Help
Rolling out automation doesn’t have to fall entirely on your internal team. A Managed Services Provider (MSP) can step in to help you plan, set up, and support the tools that make everyday work easier to manage and less time-consuming. Here’s what that support often looks like:
- Help Identifying the Right Starting Point: An MSP can help you figure out which processes are slowing you down, whether that’s paperwork stuck in approvals, support requests falling through the cracks, or teams wasting time managing printers. With experience across industries, they know what to tackle first and how to get results quickly.
- Making Sure Everything Works Together: Automation only works well if your systems talk to each other. An MSP knows how to connect the tools you already use like cloud storage, user logins, or accounting software so your workflows run smoothly instead of creating new silos.
- Setting Things Up Securely: Security is a big part of any process that handles documents, user data, or internal systems. An MSP can help you set up secure logins, control who sees what, and keep sensitive information protected without adding complexity for your team.
- Ongoing Support and Adjustments: Things change. Processes evolve, staff turnover happens, and new needs come up. An MSP will support your business after setup, helping fine-tune workflows, train new users, and make sure everything continues running the way it should.
- Keeping Costs Predictable: Instead of piecing together multiple tools (and hiring someone to manage them), many businesses find it easier to work with an MSP that handles everything under one service agreement. It’s easier to manage, and you get consistent support without surprise costs.
Challenges to Prepare For
As with any change, introducing automation at work can bring a few bumps along the way. Here are some ways to plan ahead:
Getting People on Board
Change can be tough, especially when people are used to doing things a certain way. Without clear communication and some hands-on support, there’s a good chance teams will fall back on old habits. Start small, show where it helps, and make sure your team feels involved in the process.
Keeping Information Secure
When you’re automating tasks that involve sensitive documents or user data, security matters. Access needs to be limited to the right people, and everything should be properly protected. This is where a Managed Services Provider can be helpful; they’ll know how to set it up right from the start.
Making Sure Systems Work Together
New tools are great—until they don’t talk to the ones you already use. Connecting different systems can be tricky, especially if you’ve got older software in the mix. A provider who understands both sides can help make sure everything runs smoothly.
Knowing When to Leave It Manual
Not everything needs to be automated. Some tasks benefit from human judgment or a quick conversation. The goal isn’t to take people out of the loop, it’s to get rid of the busywork so they can focus on the parts that matter.
What’s Next for AI in Business Processes?
Automation tools are getting more capable and more connected. The way businesses handle documents, approvals, and everyday tasks is continuing to shift toward systems that are easier to manage and more responsive to how work actually happens.
Here’s what that might look like:
- Smarter Routing: Instead of just following fixed steps, some tools will start making suggestions based on what’s worked well in the past.
- Connected Workflows: Forms, signatures, print jobs, and document storage will work together in one place, no need to jump between systems.
- Stronger Built-In Oversight: Features like access controls, activity tracking, and document retention will be baked into the process, not tacked on after.
These tools aren’t here to replace your IT team or the people who manage your workflows. They’re meant to make the work easier and less prone to error, so your team can spend less time chasing approvals or fixing mistakes, and more time moving things forward.
Where to Go from Here
Manual processes might seem like just part of the job, but over time, they slow things down, stretch your team thin, and make it harder to keep everything on track. You don’t have to overhaul everything at once, but small improvements can make a big difference.
Tools that handle document routing, print management, or form approvals can save time and reduce the number of steps your team has to manage. With the right systems, those tasks will still get done, just with fewer headaches.
A Managed Services Provider can help you put these systems in place, keep them secure, and make sure they work the way your business needs them to. You don’t need to figure it out on your own.
About hubTGI
hubTGI is a Canadian-owned Managed Services provider that offers Print Services, Workflow Solutions, Managed IT, Cybersecurity Solutions, Cloud Services and VoIP to help their customers control costs, secure their data and make their people more productive.
For the latest industry trends and technology insights visit hubTGI’s Resources page.
